The European Union (EU) yesterday condemned the Israeli government’s decision to establish a new settlement in the Jordan Valley region of the occupied West Bank.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet voted to back a proposal that would see unauthorised outpost Mevo’ot Yeriho retroactively “legalised”, thus becoming an official statement.

Israel distinguishes between official and unapproved settlements (the latter often referred to as outposts), while under international law, all settlements are illegal.

The Jordan Valley is a key region of the occupied West Bank, and the target of long-standing Israeli settlement activity, in parallel to the displacement of local Palestinians.

The Trump administration last week made its first major step to create a Greek-centric NATO corridor following United States Ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey R. Pyatt, announcement that his country intends to acquire the strategic port of Alexandroupoli. If Athens is to accept such a proposal, the country would be contributing to a geopolitical escalation. The US is attempting to push Greece, a traditional rival to Turkey, closer to them at a time when Ankara continues to defy NATO by strengthening its relations with Russia.

Authored by Ronald-Peter Stoferle via The Mises Institute,

The ongoing “World War of Currencies”, as the German journalist Daniel D. Eckert called it, the battle for the future of the world monetary system is not a shallow action film but more like Game of Thrones – a complex series with hundreds of actors and locations, stretching over decades and demanding full concentration from the viewer.

Authored by Daniel Lacalle via DLacalle.com,

The ECB is creating a dangerous bubble and should not have cut rates by 10bps nor added a new purchase program of €20 billion per month.

1) Eurozone states are already financing themselves at negative rates. There is no need for lower rates and this disguises real risk.

This has saved governments more than 1 trillion euro in interest expenses (handelsblatt.com/today/finance/…)

2) The ECB has not abandoned its stimulus. It repurchases all maturities, launched a liquidity injection (TLTRO) in March 2019 and balance sheet stands at almost 40% of eurozone GDP.

3) Excess liquidity is 1.7 trillion euro. More liquidity does not lead agents to spend/invest more.

There is no higher solvent credit demand because monetary policy perpetuates overcapacity and zombifies the economy. Share of zombie companies has soared c30% since 2013. (BIS)

Authored by M.K. Bhadrakumar via IndianPunchline.com,

The meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of Russia and France in the 2+2 format in Moscow on September 9 signified not only a warming up of relations between the two countries but a reset in Russia’s ties with the West.

The last time a Franco-Russian event in the 2+2 format took place was in October 2012 in Paris. A year later, the conflict erupted in Ukraine and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia. The trajectory since then appears to be reversing its course.

The first signs appeared during the G7 summit in Biarritz on 24-26 August where the schism between the West and Russia significantly narrowed. The US President Donald Trump announced that he intended to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to next year’s G7 at Miami.

Authored by M.K. Bhadrakumar via IndianPunchline.com,

The meeting of the foreign and defense ministers of Russia and France in the 2+2 format in Moscow on September 9 signified not only a warming up of relations between the two countries but a reset in Russia’s ties with the West.

The last time a Franco-Russian event in the 2+2 format took place was in October 2012 in Paris. A year later, the conflict erupted in Ukraine and the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia. The trajectory since then appears to be reversing its course.

The first signs appeared during the G7 summit in Biarritz on 24-26 August where the schism between the West and Russia significantly narrowed. The US President Donald Trump announced that he intended to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to next year’s G7 at Miami.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday his plans to annex the Jordan Valley in the West Bank as an election promise if he wins next time.

"Today, I announce my intention, after the establishment of a new government, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea," Netanyahu said in a speech broadcast live on Israeli TV channels.

The prime minister said, however, that the move would be done after publication of a long-awaited US peace plan and consultations with US President Donald Trump.

Around 65,000 Palestinians and 11,000 Israeli settlers live in the Jordan Valley, according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem. The main Palestinian city is Jericho, with around 28 villages and smaller Bedouin communities.

For their part, the EU said they did not recognise any changes made to the pre-1967 borders and called any settlement plans "illegal under international law".

The creation of a UN "Commissioner for Protecting our European Way of Life" has sparked outrage across Europe, after the new role which will oversee immigration policy was announced by incoming EU commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

The new position, to be filled by Greece's EU commissioner, Margaritis Schinas, was unveiled along with the rest of von der Leyen's new cabinet at a Tuesday press conference in Brussels.

While Von der Leyen said the new Commission cabinet was "as diverse as Europe is," critics have noted that all of its members are white, while calling the new commissioner position "fascist," according to The Independent - which couldn't find a single person in support of the new role for a quote.

"This looks like the portfolio to fight back against the rise of the fascists, but only by adopting their divisive rhetoric around ‘strong borders’," British Green MEP Molly Scott Cato told The Independent.

Will outgoing ECB president Mario Draghi's "swan song" decision - the one in which he is widely expected to cut rates deeper into negative territory and resume sovereign and/or corporate QE - be a bazooka or a waster pistol? That's the question.

Markets currently fully price in a 10 bps reduction in the deposit rate to -0.5% with just over a 40% chance of a deeper cut of 20 bps.

Of the 70 economists polled by Reuters, around a quarter look for a 20bps reduction with the remainder looking for 10bps. Elsewhere, the survey noted that almost 90% of respondents expected a resumption of bond purchases as of October with a touted monthly amount of EUR 30bln”. In order to mitigate the impact of deeper negative rates on the Eurozone banking sector, around 90% of those surveyed look for some form of tiering system.

The European Union will create a new defence and space arm to help fund, develop and deploy armed forces, the bloc’s incoming chief executive said on Tuesday, naming an ally of French President Emmanuel Macron for the role.

SOURCE: ALETHO NEWS

BY SARAH ABED | SEPTEMBER 9, 2019
Denmark is recognized as one of the most socially and economically developed countries in the world, which enjoys a high standard of living as well as high metrics in national performance, protection of civil liberties, and the lowest perceived level of corruption in the world, has announced that it will be boosting military contributions to missions around the world, including joining the United States in its illegal and unauthorized deployment in northeastern Syria.

The sovereign and proud nation of Syria has neither invited nor does it accept any foreign invaders on its land and has repeatedly demanded that all foreign forces leave on their own before they are forced out. Syria is highly committed to liberating every inch of its land from terrorist control whether that be domestic or foreign, and protecting its territorial integrity.

We will be forced to open the gates. We cannot be forced to handle the burden alone," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Thursday while demanding that European countries give political support to his controversial 'safe zone' plan in northern Syria.

Ankara is currently in tense negotiations with the United States over Erdogan's plan to militarily carve out a large swathe of territory along the Turkish-Syrian border which would serve as a buffer zone of sorts where US-backed Kurdish militias could not operate.

Erdogan said one million refugees could settle in the new buffer territory, thus alleviating the crisis on Turkish soil, and ultimately for Europe as well.
Turkey sees the YPG core of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as a terrorist extension of the outlawed PKK. Turkey has of late vowed to carve out the proposed 'safe' territory on a unilateral basis if it can't make progress with Washington.

Britain said on Monday it would end European Union freedom of movement rules immediately after it leaves the bloc on Oct. 31 but Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the country would not be hostile to immigration.